Marden learns about leadership in Washington

Wednesday

Feb 29, 2012 at 3:07 PMMar 2, 2012 at 5:01 PM

By GEORGE AUSTIN

By GEORGE AUSTIN

Editor

SOMERSET — At the conference in Washington, D.C. that Katie Marden went to earlier this month, there were youths from different Native American tribes from around the United States. But there was one common purpose among all of them at the conference. They were developing young leaders to help keep their people connected to their culture.

"It really taught me how to become a true leader in my community and how I'm going to be as a person as I get older," Marden said.

The conference was held from Feb. 12 to Feb. 18 in Washington, D.C. by the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. During the first day of the conference, Marden and the other youths attended a meeting where they watched a USET committee deal with different problems and vote on bills for a tribal community. A couple days later, the youths had their own council meeting. Marden, a Somerset resident, represented the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah.

During the conference, the youths had to find a problem in their tribal communities and come up with a resolution. Marden's project involved youth and teen involvement in the tribe. She worked on setting up programs for the summer in which Wampanoag youths will be connected to their culture and language.

The conference was held at a Marriott Hotel in Washington. Marden and the other students went to the National Museum of the American Indian. They listened to a Native Hawaiian who is part of the Congress who told them about why it is important to stay connected to their culture.

"We visited lots of memorials and monuments and learned how they were important to Native People," Marden said.

Some of the other places they went to were the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument and the Library of Congress.

"I tried to make the trip a true educational experience and get as much as I could out of it," Marden said.

Marden will now be part of the youth council for the Wampanoag Aquinnah Tribe in the area. She will attend meetings on Martha's Vineyard. Her father, Keith Marden, was elected as a member of the tribal council last year.

She and five other students from the Wampanoag tribe went to the national conference and will make a presentation to the tribal council on how they will get young people involved with the council and more connected to their culture.

In Washington, D.C., the young leaders had to show their proposal for how they would do that to the national council and to each tribe that visited. They used poster boards to display the information.

"I was a little nervous," Katie said of making the presentation before the USET Council.

Mr. Marden said that the Wampanoags were not allowed to speak their language after the King Philip's War, but said there has been a revival in the language. He said Wampanoags are starting to get the roots of their language back.

Katie's brother, Brendan, attended the national conference in 2008, so she got some advice from him before she went.

"He just said to make it an educational experience," Katie said. "You'll meet a lot of friends and have fun."

Katie's grandfather, Lloyd Marden, has also been involved with the tribal council for the Wampanoags.

Katie said that one of the discussions at the conference had to do with lobbyists who are trying to make the issues of Native Peoples known to the public. She said there was a scandal in the Senate a few years ago when tribal federal funds were taken from some native tribes to give to others because of the gaming issue, which she said looked like it was trying to create a rivalry among tribes.

Katie is a junior at Somerset-Berkley Regional High School where she is involved in a lot of the music programs, including the concert choir, treble choir, chorale, show choir, winter percussion, junior jazz band, senior jazz band, symphonic band and concert band.

She plays piano, guitar, trombone and marimba. She is also teaching her younger sister how to play the flute.

Keith said that meeting children from other tribes from Maine to Louisiana was very beneficial to his daughter, as well as learning about not only the U.S. government, but the tribal government, which she did at the conference. He said Katie got to learn a little bit more about her tribe than she normally does.

"In general, it's a great experience, a very educational experience for them," Keith said.

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